Horatio Street Association Cookbook

Horatio Street Association Cookbook, Greenwich Village, New York City compiled by The Horatio Street Association “concerned neighbors dedicated to the safety, beautification, and preservation of our street” 1986

This book caught my eye because I haven’t come across too many New York City community association cookbooks during my endless used book trollings. Horatio Street is in the West Village connecting the Meatpacking District and Chelsea. The neighborhood still has a lot of community involvement and there is a little write-up about the street you can read here. I can’t find a current site or any info for the Horatio Street Association–if anyone reading knows anything, leave a comment! I wonder if they got rolled into a larger Village group.

There is a fair amount of stock illustrations and tips.

Most of the recipes are credited to the contributor but not all. Somewhat unusually there are some recipes that appear to come from other (non-community) cookbooks that are carefully credited like Stuffed Mushrooms (adapted from “32 Easy Barbecues” by Helen Feingold; Barrons). Some recipes are from companies (Bacardi Imports, Inc’s Bacardi Rum Cake and Glaze) and others are from local programs or notables like Gayle’s &-UP Cake contributed by Mr. Food WOR-TV, News #9. I really would love to know more about the making of this cookbook–who they reached out to and how they ended up with the recipes.

A few recipes have headnotes which I love but rarely see. Some appeared on uncredited recipes. Who wrote them?

Another favorite of mine–some recipes with mysterious names.

There was a lot of recipes calling for rum in the book. Maybe someone worked for Bacardi?

There was a fair amount of regional recipes–not necessarily from New York (although there is a Manhattan Fish Stew) but other areas of the US like Creole Stew and Gumbo. International dishes appear as well like Iris Vinton’s Lemon Atjar which had unusually specific and helpful instructions and even some serving suggestions and Edythe Lachlan’s Strassburger Wurstsalat which included a note that making it with mayonnaise instead of oil and vinegar you’d end up with Wurstsalat, Swiss style.

A first for me–Ruth Gross’ Ironed Cheese Sandwiches and her cheerful instructions which appeared below a craft recipe and a helpful hint section in the “Beverages and Miscellaneous” chapter almost as if they didn’t know what to do with it. It’s clearly a main dish.

I adapted Baked Tarragon Cod (and turned it into a stovetop pasta dish) from this book.

I have a second book by this same association. 1978’s The Horatio Street Festival of Foods Cookbook.